The Key To Survival
by Sofaloaf3
Summary: What would have happened if President Snow hadn't switched the cards for the third quarter quell? Rebellion never happened and there is a surprising twist to this years games. SYOT OPEN please submit a character or two so that I can start writing the reaping's!
1. Quarter Quell Announcement

**Please PM me an SYOT stat! thanks! format for SYOT at bottom.**

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"Ladies and Gentlemen," President snow said, "This is the seventy-fifth year of the Hunger Games."

President snow continued on with the speech about the uprising and the celebration of every twenty-five years of the Hunger Games.

"Now we honor our third quarter quell, on the seventy-fifth anniversary," he continued, "As a reminder to the districts that one Capitol citizen is equal to 6 of the strongest citizens of the districts, there will be up to six victors of the third quarter quell. But, the arena and the rules will be altered, and there may not be a single victor."

President Snow finished his speech, leaving the citizens of the Capitol exited, and the citizens of the districts scared out of their minds.

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**Hello peeps, this is Sophie here. So this is a SYOT story, so please take your time to PM me a character that you would like in the story. You can submit up to four characters, but if I don't get enough in time I might put in a few of my own. After all the reapings are finished, you can vote on a poll that I will put up on my page on your favorite character, and the top three will be guaranteed a spot in the final 8. There will be a twist in the games that will determine who wins, so it won't be the last ones standing. There will be sponsoring and the info for that is below. On the next chapter I will have all of the tributes and the empty slots will be the one that I haven't got yet. **

**Thanks and please SYOT!**

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**_Earning sponsor points_**

**Submitting a tribute - 15 points ****(Per tribute)**

**Reviewing - 20 points**

**Favorite the story - 15**

**Following - 10**

**All of the following points will be added to the 20 of reviewing if you do any of these in the review**

**Guessing how the tributes are going to have to win and what skills they will need - 30**

**Giving me constructive criticism - 5**

** Guessing who will win - 5**

**Guessing who will die in bloodbath - 5**

**Guessing who will die in bloodbath correctly - 20 (will be added after bloodbath)**

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**_Things you can sponsor to tributes_**

**Water - 10**

**Bread - 10**

**Matches - 10**

**Meal - 20**

******Map of Arena - 40**

**Standard weapon - 50**

**Advanced weapon - 75 (extremely lethal)**

**First aid kit - 80 (heal any injury)**

**Location of a key - 300**

***Points may vary* **

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**_SYOT format_**

**Name:**

**Age:**

**District:**

**Personality:**

**Appearance:**

**History:**

**Family:**

**Friends:**

**Likes:**

**Dislikes:**

**Act (way they get the Capitol to like them Ex: cuteness or acting tough):**

**View of Capitol/Games:**

**Reaped/Volunteered:**

**Reaction:**

**Allies:**

**Strength:**

**Weakness:**

**Fear:**

**Weapon of choice:**

**Kill reaction:**

**Romance:**

**Disclaimer- The concept of the Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins along with any characters that were in the books. The idea for the Quarter Quell and this story belongs to me, myself, and I. All characters submitted to me belong to their submitters.**


	2. Tribute Slots

Here are the tributes:

**District 1**

**Male: Fuzz Tates (17) - _Don't Judge the Fuzz_**

**Female: Silver O`Malloy (15) -_ xSakura-Kissesx_**

**District 2**

**Male: Arthur Weaver (16) - ****_Daikenki_**

**Female: Alexandra (Alex) Weaver (12) - _Daikenki_**

**District 3**

**Male: Jon Krieg (15) - _Taiden_**

**Female: Verity Laveen (13) - _torik__  
_**

**District 4**

**Male: Darius Lucian (16) ****- _Dangerous Pancakes_**

**Female: Talisa Cress (17) - _DecidedlyDestiel_**

**District 5**

**Male: RESERVED - _someoneorother123_**

**Female: North Dakota (14) - _A random surprise_**

**District 6**

**Male: Nutmeg Trendsetter (17) - _A random surprise_**

**Female: Cocoa Stevens (13) - _A random surprise_**

**District 7**

**Male: ****Nacho Volunteer_ (15) -_ PM_ME_YOUR_NOSTRILS**

**Female: Amber Lumin (17) - _Imetc_**

**District 8**

**Male: ****Fame Gotham (14) - #ClipOnMullet㈌9**_  
_

**Female: Evanna Lascius (14) - _willowbrookroad_**

**District 9**

**Male: ****Rye Burnwell (14) - _Imetc_**_  
_

**Female: Arianna Valentia (16) - _Sofaloaf3 (me)_**

**District 10**

**Male: Zec Loner (13) - *Gasp*There'sNoWiFi_D:**

**Female: Muave McKenna_ (12) willowbrookroad_**

**District 11**

**Male: Edgar Garen (16) - _Taiden_**

**Female: RESERVED_  
_**

**District 12**

**Male: Glitch TreeFu (12) - _A random surprise_**

**Female: Morgan Ross (15) - _Dangerous Pancakes_**

_So if you couldn't already tell, there are three submitters that are fake. I'm sure that you can figure out who xD Thanks to A random surprise for helping me make those characters. _


	3. Sponsor Points

**Hey Guys, this is Sophie. Thanks to DecidedlyDestiel, willowbrookroad, and Taiden for submitting a tribute. Please submit tributes so that I can start the Reaping's. REMEMBER - you can submit up to 3 tributes. Thanks! below I will keep track of the sponsor points you have accumulated. **

Sponsor Points

_DecidedlyDestiel - **110**_

_willowbrookroad - **70**_

_Taiden__** -105**_

_A random surprise - **170**_

_Torik - **25**_

_Imetc - **130**_

_Daikenki - **30**_

___someoneorother123 - **8****5**_

___xSakura-Kissesx - **50**_

___Dangerous Pancakes - **30**_

___Don't Judge the Fuzz - **15**_

**I will add sponsor points in or add your name if you gain any.**

**_Earning sponsor points_**

**Submitting a character - 15 points**

**(Per character)**

**Commenting - 20 points**

**Favoriting - 15**

**Following - 10**

All of the following points will be added to the 20 of commenting if you do any of these in the comments

**Guessing how the tributes are going to have to win somewhat correctly - 50**

**Guessing how they are gonna have to win (even if you get it wrong) - 20**

**Giving me constructive criticism - 5**

** Guessing who will win - 5**

**Guessing who will die in bloodbath - 5**

**Guessing who will die in bloodbath correctly - 20**

**Also, please check out my other story, In The Arms Of The Ocean, and leave a review so that I know I am not writing to myself... :P**


	4. District 6 Reaping

**Hey guys, this is Sophie. I still have a lot of tribute slots open so if you could take your time to send me a tribute, I would be very grateful.**

**By the way, the first two POV's overlap. **

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_**District 6**_

**Cocoa Stevens POV**

"Ewww!" I screamed as my body cringed in horror. "That's disgusting! Get that thing away from me!" I yelled.

"Oh Come on, Cocoa, it's just a slug," my best friend Lily said, barely being able to compose herself. She was laughing her head off as she held out her hand, which had a giant slug on it. The slug wrapped itself around her pointer finger, trying to hold on for dear life as Lily shoved her hand in my face.

"Just touch it, it won't hurt you," said my friend Katlyn. My other friend, Taylor, was laughing to hard to say anything. They had cornered me on the side of our school, so there was no way I could escape them.

"I'd rather get reaped than touch that thing!" I retorted. If they kept this up any longer, I could have sworn I would have had a heart attack. I was not scared of the slug itself, but rather the sticky slime that covered it. Saying that I didn't like germs would have been an understatement. I was terrified of them. If I came into contact with anything remotely dirty, I would freak out. There were no words to describe the sensations I would get, but they were not pleasant. At the mention of the word reaped, my friends managed to eventually stop laughing.

"The Reaping is in an hour," Lily said. We had delayed talking about the Reaping for as long as possible.

"Yea," I replied, "We should probably go get ready." We said our goodbyes and then headed our separate ways back to our houses. The Reaping started at noon and it was currently eleven. I couldn't stop thinking about what if one of my friends or my uncle, who was only seventeen, got picked. Anxiety was rushing through me, I couldn't stand the thought of losing someone that I loved. I remembered that when President Snow announced that up to six people could win everybody got hopeful, but then the harsh reality that the Capitol wasn't that nice came rushing down on us and we realized that we would probably die in the process of doing whatever we had to win.

Once I arrived at my house, I walked into my bedroom to find my mother waiting for me. After I put on the white dress she had laid out for me, I sat down on my bed so that my mother could do my hair.

"Are you nervous?" she asked as she pulled my black hair back into a bun.

"Yea," I admitted sheepishly.

"I was too, on all of my reapings," my mother said.

"What if I get picked?" I asked. A single tear rolled off my cheek and fell on the white dress that made my legs look impossibly tan.

"Your name is in there two times, mixed in with thousands of other names," she said, "the chance that you get picked is slim to nothing." She was right. The chances that I got picked were very slim. The same was with my friends who also had their name in there only one time. My uncle, however, had his name put in twenty-four times because he had to take tesserae for his parents and him. He was who I was really worried about.

My uncle lives in one of the poorest parts of District 6. His parents, who are my grandparents, had my mom when they were very young, at the age of twenty. Sixteen years later, when my grandma was 36, she gave birth to my uncle. They were very fortunate that my uncle and grandma were healthy after that because it was very rare that someone could successfully birth at such an old age. My mom moved out at eighteen and fell in love with my dad, who was one of the wealthier people in District 6, because he was a mechanic. They had me two years later, and now they are happily married.

When she finished with my hair, I turned around and gave her a hug.

"I love you," I told her.

"I love you too, sweetheart," she replied. After a while, we left our house with my father and began walking to where the Reaping was held.

**Nutmeg Trendsetter POV**

1/9,583

One to nine and a half thousand. That was approximately the chance that I were to get reaped for the Hunger Games. There were around 500,000 people in District 6, around 100,000 of which were children twelve to eighteen years old. Around 70,000 tesserae is taken out each year in our district, plus it adds up each year. That makes up around 230,000. My name was in the Reaping 24 times mixed in with 230,000 other names.

This was why I was not worried about the Reaping. I was walking to my house from school. Today we had a half day of school. District 6 was the only district to make children go to school for half of the day before the Reaping.

The workers had to work all day, except they got off for an hour before the Reaping and during the Reaping, but they had to go right back to work afterwards because they have to conduct and route the trains and port and handle the baggage. The mechanics got the day off unless something went wrong and they were needed. Some of the conductors weren't even allowed to go to the Reaping because they had to be in another district to take to tributes to the Capitol.

District 6 consisted of three schools. One for the rich people, which my niece, Cocoa, went to. The children of the mechanics and conductors usually went there. The second one was where the porters and routers sent their children. Then, there was my crappy school, where the poorest citizens who were usually baggage handlers sent their children. But hey, you get what you get.

After I got back to my house, I walked into the kitchen to see my mother.

"Nutmeg," I laid out an outfit on your bed for the Reaping. Hurry up and get ready, it's a long walk to the Reaping," she said.

"OK, Mom," I said. I internally rolled my eyes because she always treated me like a baby, even though I was seventeen. I could choose out my own outfit. I put on the outfit that she laid out for me anyways, and then looked at myself in a tiny hand mirror. My shaggy dark brown hair was covering my eyes. I pulled it back and tucked it behind my ear so that you could see my hazel eyes for once in a while. It was not often that someone from district six had light-colored eyes, usually they were a dark, almost black, brown, but it runs in our family.

Once my father got home, we immediately left for the Reaping. Because we lived in the poorest part of the district, it took us almost an hour to get to the Reaping. The whole while, I was listening to my parents as they made small talk, while I mainly zoned out.

"Nutmeg?" I heard someone say. By the way they said it, I could tell they had tried to get my attention for a while. I turned to the side and saw my niece, Cocoa.

"Cocoa!" I said and then picked her up and spun her around. She was giggling uncontrollably.

"I missed you!" she replied. Cocoa and I were very close, but because we lived on different sides of District 6, we didn't get to see each other much.

"Piggy back ride?" I asked her. That was something we used to do a lot, back when she was younger and she was at my house more often.

"Is that even a question?" she asked. She hopped up on my back and we walked the rest of the way to the Reaping.

When we got there, we got our finger pricked and then Cocoa went to stand with her friends. Just as I got to the section of seventeen year old boys, our escort walked up to the stage. I noticed that our escort this year was new. She had purple skin and a bright blue afro, which was worse than our old one.

"Welcome, future generation of District 6," she said, "Before we get to the exiting part, we must enjoy this video from the Capitol." I zoned out as the video played, reminding myself that we would have to be very unlucky for Cocoa or I to be reaped.

"Alrighty, female tributes first," she said. _It's ok, we are not going to get reaped. _I repeated in my head. She picked out a name from the glass bowl and then walked back to the microphone.

_It's ok, she is not going to get reaped._

"Cocoa Stevens."

My heart stopped. Out of 230,000 names, her name was in there once. We were extremely unlucky. I turned my head to find her in the sea of girls. They all parted and I saw her standing there with a blank face. Her friend Lily was clutching on to her, sobbing as the peacekeepers tried to take her on to the stage. A peacekeeper tore Lily from Cocoa and then put her with Katlyn and Taylor who were sobbing too. Lily, Katlyn, and Taylor were all hugging each other as hard as they could.

Cocoa must have realized what was going on because she started crying as they carried her onto the stage.

"No! No!" I heard her scream as she tried desperately to escape their arms. Once she got on the stage, she stood there and cried. The escort, Fleur, awkwardly patted her shoulder.

"Now the male tribute," Fleur said, exited. She reached her hand in the bowl and pulled out a name.

"Nutmeg Trendsetter."

We weren't just unlucky, we were cursed.

I could tell I that I had a shocked expression on my face. I quickly covered it with a neutral expression; if I was going to win, I would need to act tough. As I was walking up the stage, I remembered President Snow announcing that up to six tributes could win. No matter what, I was going to get Cocoa out of there alive.

"Please shake hands," Fluer said. Cocoa hugged me causing Fleur to raise an eyebrow.

"You guys know each other?" she said, with a happy expression on her face.

"No, I'm just hugging some random person," I said sarcastically.

The peacekeepers took us into separate rooms in the Justice Building, despite my attempts to get them to let us in the same room. My parents cam in shortly after with tears streaming down their faces.

"Mom. Dad," I said as I hugged them.

"Listen to me son, you can do this. Your going to do everything you can to get Cocoa and yourself out of there alive," my dad said. I was lucky that this Quarter Quell was the year where multiple tributes could win. I was also unlucky, because the arena was probably going to be a death trap. My mom was too devastated say anything.

"Don't worry, I'm going to get Cocoa out of there alive," I said.

"We love you," my mom managed to say.

"I love you too."

We hugged each other until a peacekeeper came in and told them that there time was up. My father went to leave, but my mother wasn't budging.

"Paris," my father said, "we have to go see Cocoa before time runs out." At that, she ended our hug, said bye, and then they were gone.

**Cocoa Stevens POV**

My parents and I said goodbye, they wished me luck, and said that Nutmeg and I could make it out alive. They went to go see Nutmeg, and then I was visited by my grandparents. They said the same as my parents and then left. Now, there door swung open and I saw my three friends.

"Cocoa," they said. We hugged for a while, talking about how they were going to miss me and how they thought I could win.

"Here," Lily said. She took off her necklace, which had a charm with an L hanging from it. She slid the L off of the chain and then handed it to me. Katlyn took her K off and Taylor took her T off. I took off my necklace which had my initial on it and slid their charms on it. We got these necklaces a few years ago to symbolize our friendship. I put the necklace with all the initials on it back on. It would serve at my token for the Hunger Games.

The peacekeepers came in and took my friends away. They then escorted Nutmeg and me to the train. When I walked in, the smell of delicious food made my mouth water.

"Don't eat to much of the snacks, Dinner is at six," Fleur said.

"These are just the snacks!" I asked but it came out as more of a statement. I ate something called cow cheese that was really good. I had goat cheese but never cow cheese. I then ate a few crackers with something called humus. Nutmeg said it was disgusting but I like it. Fleur called us over to the parlor where we gathered around the television to watch the Reapings.

I noticed a man who looked to be twenty was sitting in a chair next to the couch. He had black hair that was shaggy and eyes that looked black. I guessed that he was our mentor.

"Pay attention, note anyone that you would want as an ally," he said.

After the Reapings were over, I told them that I liked the girl from District 5. I noticed that I only had an hour left before dinner so I headed to my room to take a shower.

The shower was awesome. It had an electronic soap dispenser where you could choose any scent that you liked. In the shower, the harsh reality of this situation came rushing back over me and I wanted to cry. The Capitol luxuries had made me kind of forget what was happening. I decided that I would have to act cute for the Capitol, so that I would have a chance at getting sponsors. After I got out of the shower, I stepped on a panel that dried my whole body. It made my hair really frizzy so I pulled I back into a ponytail. One thing that I liked about the train that I was in was that everything was clean. I was still all tingly from the remembrance of those peacekeepers putting their dirty hands on me.

I put on a pink T-shirt and some jeans and then walking into the dining room to find everyone waiting for me so that we could eat. I sat in a chair as someone brought me a bowl of soup. I picked up my spoon and took a bite. It was heavenly.

"You tributes and your etiquette," Fleur said as she looked at the way I was holding my spoon. I heard Nutmeg scoff.

"So, what is with you and sarcasm?" she asked Nutmeg.

"I'm not sarcastic. I'm just intelligent beyond your understanding," he replied.

I giggle uncontrollably. After that, dinner was spent in silence except for a few attempts from Fleur to start a conversation. Once I finished dinner, I went to my room, put on some pajamas that were in my endless closet, and went to sleep.

_I was surrounded. All of the other tributes were circled around me, kicking dirt in my face. They were all laughing at me, as I sit in between them crying. Someone came up behind me and put a knife to my throat. I screamed and he slit my throat. I watched in horror at all the other tributes laughing, including Nutmeg, as the life drained from my eyes. Everything went black._

**Nutmeg Trendsetter POV**

I was laying in my bed, not being able to fall asleep when I heard a knock on my door. I got up and opened my door to see Cocoa standing there with tears streaming down her face.

"What's wrong," I asked her.

"I had a bad dream," she said.

"C'mon," I said and she hopped in my bed. I laid down next to her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

"No."

"Ok, Goodnight," I said. She drifted off to sleep as I stayed awake to make sure she didn't have another nightmare. She was like a sister to me, even though she was my niece. After a while, I fell asleep with one thing in my mind: I was going to get her out of that arena, no matter what.

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**Thanks for reading and don't forget to send in a tribute!**


	5. Shout Out and Bonus Question :D

Hey guys, this is Sophie. Just wanted to give a quick shout out to all of the people who have been following this story. I really appreciate it:

_**DecidedlyDestiel**_ - Thanks for leaving a meaningful review, and submitting a wonderful tribute.

_**A random surprise**_ - Thanks for leaving two reviews and submitting three amazing tributes. Also, thank you for checking out my other story and leaving a review. :D

_**Daikenki**_- Thanks for submitting two delightful tributes.

_**Taiden**_ -Thanks for submitting one superb tribute.

**_xSakura-Kissesx _**- Thanks for reviewing and submitting one excellent tribute.

**_willowbrookroad_** - Thanks for submitting two outstanding tributes.

**_Imetc _**- Thanks for submitting two marvelous tributes.

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Also, here is a bonus question. If you answer this in the reviews, I will give you ten sponsor points plus the twenty of reviewing, so thirty points total.

**If you lived in the world of Panem, which district would you want to live in and why?**


	6. District 2 Reaping

**Hey guys this is Sophie. So this is the District 2 reaping. It is shorter than last chapter but I felt that this was all that it really needed. Also, if you would like you can send in a bloodbath tribute that is particularly weak and that you don't care much about in one of the remaining outer district slots that isn't taken. If it comes down to it, I could make them myself though.**

**Thank you to all of those who submitted tributes or have just been following this story. I have dedicated hours putting this fanfiction together and I am truly grateful that there are actually people that read it and enjoy it. You guys are a dream come true and you make the hours it takes to make these chapters well worth it.**

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**_District_**** 2**

**Alexandra (Alex) Weaver POV**

Sweat beaded on my forehead as I concentrated. I let out a gruesome grunt as I threw the knife, and yet again, it hit the bullseye. I let out a breath that I didn't realize I was holding. I wiped my forehead with my arm.

"Not bad for a munchkin," my best friend, Samantha, said. I turned around and saw her standing there with her hands on her hips.

"Shut up!" I said laughing. Samantha was around four inches taller than me and she was fuller, with more muscles. I was considerably short and thin for my age which gained me my nickname, munchkin, which was only used by Samantha when she teased me.

"Give me that thing, I'll show you how it's done," she said, taking a knife away from me. We were at the training center of District 2 doing last-minute training before the Reaping. My family and I didn't agree with the Games, we thought that they are cruel. Samantha felt the same way, however her family didn't agree with her and quite literally shunned her about it until she told them she had a change of mind, even though she was lying.

My parents wanted my brother and me to train until we had to get ready for the Reaping just in case we got reaped. I thought that was stupid, because even if I got reaped, someone would have most likely volunteered, especially since I was only twelve.

"We should probably find your brother," Samantha said after she threw the knife and it hit the bullseye, "the Reaping is in an hour." We left the knife throwing station and found my brother throwing spears.

"Shhh," I whispered to Samantha, communicating with my eyes that I was going to sneak up him. We waited, crouched down behind a water table that was behind the spear throwing station. Once my brother, Arthur, finished throwing a spear, I snuck up behind him and jumped on his back.

I pretended to slit his throat with an imaginary knife and whispered into his ear, "You're dead." I slid from his back giggling. I would never actually kill anyone, I just liked to pretend.

"Ha-ha," he fake laughed as he turned around. Arthur was usually quite and he had little to no friends. However, he was usually open and honest with me. Arthur had a slightly masculine build because he was seventeen and he had trained twice a week ever since he was eleven just in case he got reaped. I had little muscle since I only started last year.

"We should probably get going," Samantha said, "the Reaping is in an hour." Samantha brought her dress with her so that she could get ready at our house. She wasn't very close with her family. We left the training center and walked back to our house. Samantha and I were chatting walk while Arthur trailed behind us.

When we got back to our house, Samantha and I headed upstairs to my room. Our family lived in a relatively big house, in the wealthiest part of District 2. My father was a blacksmith, which was the top-paid and most badass job in the district. Samantha lived in the poorest part of the district, which was still like the wealthiest part in the outer districts. the main difference between the poor and the rich in District 2 was the number of levels of the houses.

Samantha and I put on our dresses. Mine was a black long-sleeved, baggy dress and hers was a blue sundress that made her blue eyes pop and her strawberry blonde hair look bright. I was always slightly jealous of her because of that. My plain brown hair and brown eyes couldn't compare to her unique features.

After we were dressed, I forced her to let me put make up on her. She was kind of a tom-boy so that was a hard task. Afterwards, I applied makeup on myself and then we walked down stairs to find my brother waiting for us.

I said goodbye to my parents and then left with Arthur and Samantha. Because District 2 was so small, the second smallest after District 1, it only took five minutes to the square. When we got there, we checked in and then Samantha and I went to the twelve-year-old girl section. We chatted for a while, and eventually I noticed that my parents had arrived.

I watched as our escort walked on to the stage. She was new, and I remembered her from old District 6 Reapings. I remembered that her name was Clementine, and she was actually decent. She was probably the most human escort of all of them. She had orange hair that flowed down like a normal persons, and she had a decent amount of makeup on.

"Good evening," Clementine said, "please take your time to watch this video from the Capitol." The video about the Dark Days and how the hunger games was created played while Samantha and I whispered to each other. At one point, she said something funny that caused me to giggle. A couple heads turned towards me but luckily not many people heard.

"Now we move on to the reaping. May the odds be ever in your favor," Clementine said. It had been a while since a District 2 escort said that saying. Usually, they acted as though you were lucky if you got reaped. She walked over to the female bowl and picked a name off the top.

"Alexandra Weaver."

I was frozen. Samantha had silent tears running down her face as she hugged me, which I thought was silly because someone was going to volunteer, right? Right? I separated from Samantha and began walking to the stage, praying that someone would volunteer. Once I was on the stage, the harsh reality sunk in that no one was volunteering and I broke out in tears.

I heard Clementine call out the male tribute name, and then I heard Arthur say the unthinkable.

**Arthur Weaver POV**

I was following my sister, Alex, and her friend to the Reaping. I noticed that Alex and I's clothes were matching and smiled to myself. I was wearing black dress pants and dress shoes with a white button up shirt and a black tie, which matches the black dress she was wearing. If we were the same age, I bet we would have looked like twins.

When we got to the Reaping and checked in. I left Alex and Samantha to go to my spot with the seventeen year olds.

"Good evening, please take your time to watch this video from the Capitol," said a new escort who looked oddly familiar. I watched the video and then waited anxiously as she drew a female victor from the bowl.

"Alexandra Weaver," she said. Shocked, I immediately looked over to find Alex frozen. She eventually snapped out of it and started walking towards the stage. I kept waiting for someone to volunteer, but no one did. It pained me to see her cry as she stood on the stage.

I didn't even hear the escort read out a name as an internal rubber band snapped and I yelled, "I volunteer!" I walked to the stage, trying to look tough for the sponsors.

"What's your name?" the escort asked.

"Arthur Weaver." She had a pained expression on her face as she realized that we were siblings.

"Please shake hands," she said. Alex hugged me as I awkwardly patted her back. She was much shorter than me, so I couldn't really hug her without picking her up, and that would have ruined the tough guy act.

This year's Quarter Quell announcement said that more than one tribute could win. I had to protect her no matter what and hopefully keep myself alive in the process.

**Alexandra (Alex) Weaver POV**

I walked to the train, my face void of any expression. My parents had come to visit my brother and me to give us last-minute advice and wish us good luck. My mother was crying the entire time and I couldn't get her face out of my head.

Then Samantha can to visit me. She mainly cried and threatened me saying, "You better win," to which I would reply, "what are you going to do if I don't? Kill me?" That would earn a half-sob-half-laugh which just made me more sad. She gave me a locket that she was planning to give to me for my birthday, which was next month. It was gold and had a picture of her and me inside of it. After she left, a few of my friends from school visited me and wished me good-luck. No one else visited Arthur. He was kind of a loner.

After we got on the train, I pulled Arthur away from the snack bar and took him to the back of the train which was a clear glass dome.

"What the heck is wrong with you!" I quietly yelled. I didn't want anyone hearing our conversation.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "What did I do?"

"You volunteered!" I yelled like it was obvious. It's not that I wasn't grateful, it's that I didn't want him to die. I loved my brother like no one else. I also knew him like no one else, so I knew that he would be willing to give his life for me.

"I have to help you win," he said.

"I can handle myself Arthur," I said, my voice softening.

"No you can't Alexandra, your twelve," he said. I winced when he used my real name.

"They're going to use us against each other. They know that we care about each other and it is going to ruin us, and I... I," I stuttered, "I don't want you to die." I started crying as I hugged him, soaking his shirt with my tears.

"I'm going to get you and I out of there alive Alex."

More like he was going to get me out of there alive, getting himself killed in the process. I didn't want to live without him. I looked into his brown eyes and saw that they were assuring. He actually believed that we could both live.

I just hope that I can learn to believe him too.

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**Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!**


	7. District 4 Reaping

**Hey guys, what's up? Oh, me? I'm good, thanks for asking. ;) So I wanted to thank everyone for following this story, I am very grateful. You guys are awesome. Also, sorry in advance if any of the information about trawling is wrong.**

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**_District 4_**

**Talisa Cress POV**

"Shut up," I said playfully. I pushed my brother, Marlins' shoulder, which caused our small fishing boat to rock back and forth.

"You're scaring away the fish!" He replied. We were fishing for dinner before the Reaping. I was volunteering this year. I had trained ever since I was eleven and I was finally old and strong enough to volunteer, I just had to beat everyone to it.

"We should get going," my father said disappointedly. We had yet to catch a fish, and that was probably because Marlin and I couldn't stop rocking the boat. Feeling a little sheepish, I asked for five more minutes.

"Last one to catch a fish is a rotten egg," Marlin said childishly.

"You're on brother," I confidently said. We fished in silence for a few minutes until I felt a tug on my line. I eventually reeled it in to reveal a decent sized flounder.

"Look who just caught your delicious dinner," I said with a smug look on my face.

"Too bad you won't be here to eat it," he said kind of depressingly, but then he snapped out of it. "Oh well, more for me," he said sounding more like himself.

We decided to head back to the docks, where I scaled, skinned, and cleaned out the fish. Once all that was left was meat, I wrapped it and put it back in our cooler. We headed back to our house which was conveniently located right on the beach.

Once inside, I went to go walk up to my room when the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I sensed that something was off. I spun around and grabbed by brothers wrist as it was in mid-air. He thought he was so sneaky throwing a punch at me when I wasn't paying attention.

I simultaneously pulled his arm down while I grabbed the inside of his elbow forcing his arm to bend. I pulled him towards me and stepped to the side, then turned so that I was behind him. I held his arm to his back and pulled his wrist up towards his neck. He let out a groan of pain, so I let him go.

"I broke you arm and then slit your neck before you had a chance to react," I told him smugly. My brother helped me train for the Games, so I was used to him pulling these stunts. He smiled and then heavily patted my back with the arm that I didn't almost rip off.

"Congrats, you're officially ready," he said.

"Please, I was ready six years ago, I learned that when I was ten," I gloated.

"Sis, six years ago you were eleven and you had just started training," he replied with a smirk on his face.

"And you already had a year of training yet I could still beat you in a fight."

"Nuh-uh," he replied like a child, even though he was eighteen.

"Then explain to me why you never volunteered for the Games," I replied. He didn't have a response, so he just pushed my shoulder jokingly.

"I'm going to miss you while you're in the arena," he said. He had no doubt that I would come home. One we realized that the Reaping was in thirty minutes, she both went to get ready.

I walked in my aqua painted room and pulled a green dress that matched my eyes out of my closet. The color reminded me of the ocean water on a stormy day. I put on the dress and looked at myself in the mirror.

The dress flowed from my waist to my knees and from the waist up it was tight, giving it a corset look. I let my hair out of the pony-tail that it had been in for almost week. Wavy golden locks flowed down to my shoulders. There were dents in my hair from the pony-tail holder that I had to tame to get straight.

I looked at myself in the mirror and felt dissatisfied. I pulled out a clear lip gloss and dabbed it on to my lips. I smiled to myself; I had achieved my goal. The dress and my wavy hair made me look flirty, but the dress revealed enough of my muscular arms and legs to make me look tough. The clear lip gloss made me look desirable, but because it was so little I didn't look too innocent.

I walked down to the parlor to find my brother sitting on the couch. I hopped over the back of the couch, using my arm for support and landed next to him.

"Talisa, what are do you need to remember," Marlin asked. I slightly groaned. We had gone over this a million times already.

"First: Make myself the mentors favorite. Second: Make the sponsors love me. Third: Don't become attached to anyone. Fourth: Never let your guard down. Fifth: Don't trust anyone. Sixth: Never hesitate to kill," I said. We made those guidelines together a few months before and he had not stopped reminding me about them.

"Talisa, this is serious," he said sternly.

"I know, Marlin. I know them by heart."

He stared at me for a few seconds until he stood up.

"We have to go," he said.

I got my parents and then we all walked to the Reaping together. I hugged my father and he wished me good luck, and then I awkwardly hugged my mother; she and I were never close. I went with Marlin to check in and then we went our separate ways. I wanted in my section anxiously as our escort, Noahlani, walked to the stage.

She looked like a rainbow puked on her; she had on a rainbow puffy dress with hair that looked like cotton candy. It swirled in to a cone on her head that had a different color on each layer. She was wearing blue, platform shoes that were four inches high on the front of her feet and an extra three on the heel, making her a grand total of seven inches taller than normal. I could have sworn that she would fall over.

She forced us to endure watching the video from the Capitol. I felt like clapping my hands when it was finally over.

"First we will pick the female tribute," she said with her annoying high-pitched voice and weird accent. She walked over to the glass bowl and stuck her hand all the way to the bottom before picking a name.

"Mae Cadrin," she barely got the words out before I yelled, "I volunteer!"

I pushed my way through the crowd and practically ran up the stage.

"What is your name sweetheart," she said and I internally rolled my eyes at how she called me sweetheart.

"Talisa Cress." She smiled and then moved on to the male tribute. I looked out into the sea of girls and noticed some of my friends from training were looking at me with angry faces. They were mad that I volunteered before them.

"Finley Baldwin," she said.

"I volunteer as tribute!" a sixteen year old boy said. He walked to the stage and told Noahlani that his name was Darius Lucian.

"Excellent! You may shake hands," she said. I shook hands with Darius and I could have sworn that I saw regret in his eyes.

**Darius Lucian POV**

I sat in my fathers pelagic, or mid-water, trawling boat while I practiced tying advanced knots. I dropped out of school and started working with him last year. He owned trawling boat for his independent business. Basically we lower a net into the water, I wait a good hour or so while he pilots boat, and then we pull the net up to find around three hundred mackerel on the good days. Afterwards we would put the fish into machines to be processed and deep frozen at sea and then sent to the Capitol.

Basically, I got paid to do nothing. It was a pretty good job. My father expected me to take over the business, which is why he was so pissed when I told him that I was going to volunteer for the Hunger Games

Both he and my sister, Iris, thought that the Games were barbarous and idiotic. My sister had smacked me up top the head when I told her. They had been constantly telling me that I was being witless and hadn't been thinking things through.

Although we had lived in a career district, neither Iris nor I had trained for the Games. However, I had gained muscle from carrying boxes of fish all my life, and I knew my way around a spear or trident.

The Hunger Games were a way of showing off your skills and becoming famous, and that was exactly what I wanted to do.

After my father and I finished up our work, we headed back to get ready for the Reaping. I walked in to our house to be greeted by a cold shoulder from Iris. I had already told my friends about how I was volunteering and they accepted my decision and wished me good luck.

Once we got to the Reaping, I was surprised when my sister hugged me and whispered, "Please don't get yourself killed." She pulled back, her blonde hair flowing in the wind and tears falling from her eyes on to her tan cheeks.

We both checked in and then went to stand in our assigned spots. My heart was beating in my ears and I felt jitters in my stomach from nervousness. I was determined to be the first to volunteer.

Our escort, Noahlani, took the stage and began talking. I was not paying attention as they played the video, I couldn't have paid attention because I was too anxious. Before I knew it, Noahlani was already reading the female name.

Noahlani said, "Mae Cadrin," and just as the words left her lips, I heard someone yell, "I volunteer!" I looked over and saw a girl from the seventeen year old section that looked just like me walk on the stage. She told Noahlani her name and then Noahlani moved on to the male tribute. She picked a name and read, "Finley Baldwin."

I didn't even hear the name as I yelled, "I volunteer as tribute!" Relief rushed through me as I walked towards the stage.

As I got closer, I recognized the female tribute, Talisa. I remembered seeing her practice throwing a spear one time when I walked in the training center to check it out longingly. I remembered thinking that she was better than me, and that I wouldn't be able to beat her. That is when I realized that my sister was right. What had I gotten myself into?

**Talisa Cress POV**

I sat at the dinner table inside the train. Darius was sitting to my left, Noahlani and Finnick Odair were sitting in front of me, and to my right was our other mentor, Mags. I thought that it was pointless for her to be a mentor because she couldn't talk, but her and Finnick were inseparable. I had always thought Finnick was attractive and seeing him up close, I must say, damn he is fine.

I picked up a flower shaped bread roll from the center of the table and took a bite. I immediately wanted to spit it out. It tasted like plain white flour. The District 4 bread was salty, fish-shaped bread with seaweed, giving it a green tint. It was funny how every district had its own kind of bread. Hell, the word Panem _meant _bread in Latin. I swore that one day, there would be another rebellion and there would be a bread roll or cracker that had some symbol on it.

I looked at the buffet of foods laid before me, trying to find something that I was used to. I saw this weird fish-looking meat that I had never seen before, so I put a sliver on my plate and took a bite. It tasted good, but was unrecognizable.

"What kind of fish is this?" I asked no one in particular.

"Fugu," Noahlani replied. I looked at her confused.

"Puffer Fish," she answered, this time in English. I picked up my napkin and spit it out.

"Are they trying to kill us!" I asked. Puffer Fish were extremely poisonous, they contained a toxin 1,200 times more deadly than cyanide.

"Sweetheart, the best chefs in Panem made it, cutting it precisely. Then, they tested it on an Avox. Plus, if they were trying to kill you, you would be dead by now," she said.

Even after that, neither Darius nor I ate the fish.

Later, when everyone finished dinner and had gone to bed, I walked in the parlor to find Finnick sitting on the couch with a bottle of liquor in his hands. I walked up behind the couch and did the same thing I had earlier; I hopped over the back and landed next to him.

"That is not very lady-like," he said.

"Well I'm not a very lady-like kind of gal," I said. I reached over and took the liquor from his hands.

"Aren't you a little young to be drinking that?" he asked.

"Look, I might die in that arena even if I am fairly certain that I won't, if I do, I am not going down without trying this at least once," I replied and took a long sip. The alcohol burned my throat, but I pushed threw it and didn't even wince. He grinned and took the bottle from my hands. I was growing on him.

If I kept this up, I would be his favorite in no time.

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**Thanks for reading!**


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